Arsenal v Sporting: Europa League – live!

Everton get two-year academy transfer ban for tapping up and other breaches

Giroud speaks after scoring the winner and ending his six-month drought.

That was the target. The manager said we must finish top of the group. We should have been more efficient but we kept a clean sheet. They had a good team cohesion in defence and it was difficult to find solutions. It’s true that I was hoping to score soon. I came back late from the World Cup and I had lost a bit of efficiency and luck. But you have to keep going. It was a good cross from Emerson. That is what we need more of.

Bate a little unlucky there, having defended well and actually created the better chances on the balance of things. Their goalkeeper may rue that Giroud winner, and it was Evgeni Berezkin who hit that shot which rattled off the woodwork at the death. Kepa maybe had it covered but it was close.

Full-time: Bate Borisov 0-1 Chelsea.

Chelsea qualify after winning all four games. This was underwhelming stuff, though perhaps the conditions dictated it was going to be a slog. The last 32 awaits in February and Giroud has broken his duck.

90+3 mins: That was close! Emerson concedes a corner, and suddenly the Chelsea defence opens up as the ball drops to the edge of the box. The ball cracks off the woodwork and is cleared, and hurriedly.

88 mins: Zappacosta makes what has been a rare overlap tonight before Willian tries to make an incursion that come against the usual wall of day-glo yellow shirts. Bate have been quite decent in defence, though that has come at the cost of attacking in any sort of numbers.

83 mins: Chelsea are clinging on a little here and are a little fortunate their opponent is so short of quality. The fluency has not been there and the passing in the final third has been largely hopeless.

69 mins: This game is slightly more open than the trench warfare of the first half. Bate, though, don’t seem to have the legs to force the issue. Another Chelsea game seems much more likely than an equaliser.

58 mins: Skavysh surge forward, and then Signevich, who looked more than a tad offside, hit the woodwork. That resulted from a Loftus-Cheek error, conceding possession in midfield, the reason he doesn’t get in the Premier League team.

Goal! Bate Borisov 0-1 Chelsea (Giroud, 52)

Jorginho starts the move - who else? - Emerson heads down the left wing and crosses for Giroud who heads downwards. Scherbitski might have done better but Giroud doesn’t care. The smile of Clark Gable as he celebrates with team-mates.